ICA – Artscope Magazine

by Ron Fortier

While visiting Bridgewater State University’s Wallace L. Anderson Gallery in mid-September, I discovered Jack Wolfe. His work was being featured in “The Promise of Lincoln” exhibition that ran from August 19 through October 4; upon viewing it, I was immediately intrigued and set out to learn more about this artist. I started by talking to curator Jay Block, the associate director of collections and exhibitions at Bridgewater, who told me that Jack Wolfe was once a promising and highly recognized abstract expressionist painter in the mid-1950s in New York City but, he decided to walk away from it all. He believed the art world was too money-driven and morally corrupt. Rene Ricard, in his seminal article, “The Radiant Child,” in the December 1981 issue of “Artforum” wrote, “Nobody wants to miss the Van Gogh boat. The idea of the unrecognized genius slaving away in a garret is … [Read more...] about A LEGACY WORTH PRESERVING: AN INVALUABLE SECOND LOOK AT JACK WOLFE

A Decade of Diversity and Inclusion by Joshua Ascherman Despite the surge in identity-interested art production that occurred in the 1990s — a time when some artists were thinking specifically about inequality within the art world itself — there are still art museums in the United States that have a problem with diversity and inclusion. This is not so at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, which has made it a mission to collect works that “examine the most urgent social and political issues of our time.” In “First Light: A Decade of Collecting at the ICA,” the museum commemorates its 2006 move to a gorgeous Diller Scofidio + Renfro building on the waterfront by putting some of the highlights of its collection on display; one of the first things that viewers will notice is the show’s strong focus on art by women. In fact, women artists comprise nearly two-thirds of … [Read more...] about First Light Shines at the ICA

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A LEGACY WORTH PRESERVING: AN INVALUABLE SECOND LOOK AT JACK WOLFE

First Light Shines at the ICA